Norman Manley

Norman Washington Manley (4 July 1893 – 2 September 1969) was a Jamaican statesman who served as the first and only premier of Jamaica. A Rhodes Scholar, Manley became one of Jamaica's leading lawyers in the 1920s. Manley was an advocate of universal suffrage, which was granted by the British colonial government to the colony in 1944. Encouraged by Osmond Theodore Fairclough, who had joined forces with the brothers Frank and Ken Hill, Hedley P. Jacobs and others in 1938, he helped to launch the People's National Party which later was affiliated to the Trade Union Congress and even later the National Workers Union. He led the PNP in every election from 1944 to 1967. Their efforts resulted in the New Constitution of 1944, granting full adult suffrage. Manley served as the colony's Chief Minister from 1955 to 1959, and as Premier from 1959 to 1962. He was a proponent of self-government but was persuaded to join nine other British colonies in the Caribbean territories in a Federation of the West Indies. He called a referendum on the issue in 1961, which was rejected by voters, who chose for Jamaica to withdraw from the union. Manley arranged Jamaica's withdrawal from the union, chaired the committee and led the team that negotiated Jamaica's independence from the UK. Manley then opted to call a general election even though his five-year mandate was barely halfway through. Manley's PNP lost at the 1962 Jamaican general election and Manley became the first Leader of the Opposition. Jamaica gained its independence later that year on 6 August 1962. He was the father of Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley, who succeeded him as leader of the PNP.